Dune review

The Basics

Book Title: Dune

Author: Frank Herbert

Pages: 794 (not including Appendixes)

ISBN: 978-0-441-17271-9

Genre: Science fiction

Defining Quotes

"There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man-with human flesh."-p. 166

"There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles." -p.263

Summary

The story follows a young boy named Paul Atreides. His family is moved to the desert planet Arrakis for his father, the Duke, to govern. We follow Paul as his family is betrayed and he starts to become the prophesized one - Muad'Dib.

Thoughts

I first of all what to start this review off by saying I probably didn't give this book the attention that it deserved while reading it. After finishing the book, I'm pretty sure I will come back to this book at a later time and give it the care and nurturing it needs in order to fully appreciate it. Now that we've put that out there, let's move on to my initial thoughts.

For me, this was a form of world building that I haven't really encountered before. There were a lot of terms, beliefs, ways of communicating, and societies that were brand new in a way I haven't read in other fantasy world-building books. I felt that the way everyone interacted with each other was extremely formal, which seemed strange to me. Not turned off by it, just different. My favorite character by far is the Duke Leto, Paul's father. He has a sense of integrity about him, but is also intelligent enough to know others don't play by the rules and thereby counter-attacks their attempts. 

The story is told by multiple perspectives, but not so many that you get confused. My confusion lay in a lot of the terminology, which there is a glossary provided in the back of the book for most of the terms. I feel if I concentrated my attention on this book solely instead of reading multiple books as well, I would've been more immersed in this world. I could see and read the potential, but I wasn't as absorbed in it as I was with The Way of Kings. 

If you're wanting to find a book to introduce yourself into the sci-fi genre, this isn't the book. If you love sci-fi literature and really want to see where the genre built upon itself, this is a great book to choose. Ironically, it doesn't necessarily have a lot of the technological machines that you would usually expect in a sci-fi book, but it is much closer to sci-fi than it is to fantasy, in my opinion. It's a dense book, but I believe it's a book worth reading (and reading again if you don't quite understand it). 

Pros vs. Cons

• Pros
• Great world-building
• Interesting characters you can get behind
• Great care and detail put into the writing
• Cons
• Can get lost in the terminology
• Somewhat of a dense book
• Needs your undivided attention when reading

Overall Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐

What did you think of my review? Is this helpful to you if you haven't read the book? If you have read Dune, do you think this is an accurate description of the book? 

Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura review

The Basics

Book Title: Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura

Author: Kathy Tyers

Pages: 341

ISBN: 0-553-56872-8

Genre: Science fiction

Defining Quote(s)

"We will never be free from tragedy, Gaeriel. Each of us must be free to pursue her own tragedy." -p. 237

"Light endured, and so did darkness. He would choose daily." -p. 339

Summary

Picking up the story from where Return of the Jedi left off, we join the crew on a mission to Bakura, an Imperial-controlled planet. Bakura finds itself under attack by an alien race outside of Imperial or Alliance control, known as the Ssi-ruuk, wanting to transfer the human mind into machinery. Join the crew as they maneuver to save the Bakurans without getting stabbed in the back by the Imperial forces they have to join up with.

Thoughts

This is my first time delving into the written works of the Star Wars mythos and was pleasantly surprised with this. So many times, you see the conversion from book to movie and become upset with the movie for not holding up to the same standards as the book. In this case, it was the reverse process and provided more than what we could get in the movie. Due to the nature of being a book, we are able to view the thoughts and actions of multiple characters (including Chewie!). By being able to see Luke and Leia's thoughts, we're able to understand the nature of the Force and what needs to be done mentally in order to grow stronger. 

The Ssi-ruk in this story are a formidable villain, but the extent of their actions and deplorability is epitomized in the human, Dev Sibwarra. He is a servant of one of the Ssi-ruk and to see his actions and thoughts is what really makes this story exciting to read. 

My biggest problem with it, which I knew going into it, was the terminology. In the movie, it's quite easy to glaze over all those fancy made-up words and understand the gist of what they're doing/saying through their actions. In this format, you have to create some of these unknown terms from your own imagination and within the context that it is given to you, making it much more difficult compared to the movie format. My husband has read these books probably 100 times and says that it gets easier the more times you read it, which I believe. I'm sure you don't need to read it 100 times in order to understand it. Just be prepared if this is your first time around that it may be difficult to get through at times, BUT the story that is there was very much enjoyable.

I am planning on continuing with this series.

Pros vs. Cons

• Pros
• Follow all your favorite characters 
• Great insight into the Force
• Interesting character development
• Cons
• Difficult terminology at times
• Lots of newly introduced side characters

Overall Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Is there an instance you can think of where the movie was better than book? Let me know what you think!